The inflation aid package currently being discussed by Parliament, is the result of a compromise between three coalition parties according to PM Eduard Heger. He said that the fourth coalition partner Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) did not bring any proposals of their own to the government sessions, which were held for three months and only criticised other proposals.
The Institute of Economic and Social Studies INESS considers the government-approved
package of pro-family measures to be too costly, pointing at its 8 weak points. As INESS
stresses, the government has not secured sources of finances for the package, which is according to the institute not a response to the current economic situation - it was presented six months ago by the Finance Minister Igor Matovič. INESS criticizes that the measures are being approved in a fast-track procedure with an allegedly misleading explanation that economic damage is being avoided due to a fall in household demand. Other weak points are that the measures are not targeted to specific groups and do not follow any particular goal, making it a wasteful use of public resources. “Across the board benefits are, by definition, a large expense, causing needy families to receive too little support and high-income families to receive unnecessarily high support,” explains INESS.
As extra-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia (PS) party head and MEP Michal Šimečka said, the proposed inflation aid package includes an increase in the tax bonus. This is expected to cause a shortfall in funding for local governments, depriving them of €500 million. Šimečka said that such a move only five months before the municipal elections would be devastating for them.
Opposition MP of Voice-SD Matúš Šutaj Eštok called the package "another crazy idea of Finance Minister Igor Matovič" and criticized the fact that the Government has done nothing to help the public in the past nine months. Michal Šipoš, of the largest governing Ordinary People party and head of its caucus, disagreed, mentioning a number of measures adopted by the coalition in recent months.
Justice Minister Mária Koliková (Freedom and Solidarity) remarked that there might be no
inflation aid package in the end. Adopting it in a fast-track procedure without a proper expert discussion might breach the law and it could be submitted for examination by the Constitutional Court.
